Pilot Plant Sedimentation Tank Meeting Minutes

Fall 2008 Minutes

November 7, 2008

Accomplishments

* Last week, one of the caps for the draining of the control sedimentation tank was dropped into the outflow; this week, on Wednesday, Shaina successfully plugged the pipe to allow the tank to be refilled.
* Kellie updated the troubleshooting page on the wiki, as well as the introduction to the research going on this semester.

Outcomes

* No research can be performed if the alum dose is not correct and consistent. We will focus on figuring out what exactly is causing the problem and the potential short and long term solutions.
* While these issues are occurring, we will update the wiki page further, as well as add a contact page for the operators.

Metrics

* N/A

Issues

* The flow entering the plant has not been consistent. The alum; however, is running at the design flow rate, resulting in a much higher concentration of alum than ideal. Lightweight flocs are forming, and the density is so low that no sludge blanket is able to form and we have floating flocs.
* The lamella are designed in such a way that if the sludge blanket formed as it did in the empty sedimentation tank, they would be completely submerged by the blanket. This is not how they are designed to perform, and more thought needs to be put into how experiments will be conducted, given the proportions of our tank.